Page 99 of Caribbean Crush

My free upgrade was obviously courtesy of him.

“Sir?” the flight attendant asks with hope laced in her question.

He nods with an astonished gaze. “Yes ... it’s her.”

She looks at me, her eyes softening as she waves for me to take my seat. She stows my luggage in the cabinet beneath the mounted TV and then spends what feels like forty-five minutes going over every single feature imaginable: my massaging, ventilated, and cooling seat; the Bose headphones; a built-in beverage bar; snacks; magazines; eye mask ... I half expect her to bring out a brand-new Jet Ski or something. By the time she steps back, I’m barely even registering everything at my disposal.

“Enjoy. I’ll be back by in just a minute with a warm towel,” she says before walking away.

My mouth opens and closes like a guppy as I half faint, half slide down into my seat. I glance over the short wall between Phillip and me. “What’s happening?”

Phillip’s forehead is furrowed so deeply that his eyebrows practically connect. “I’m not sure, actually ...”

I’m annoyed that he seems to be as confused as I am.

I need answers!

“You clearly orchestrated this,” I say, waving my hand around the plane like he was not only responsible for me being here but also everyone else on board too. “Phillip! You said you weren’t going to come after me!”

He barks out a laugh and shakes his head in disbelief. He turns to face me, conviction in his gaze as he exclaims, “I didn’t!”

When my expression doesn’t ease, he goes on. “I swear to god this is not me coming after you. Though got to say I’m relieved ... it just doesn’t cut it. I wanted to come after you, Casey. Don’t get me wrong. This morning, I was pacing in my suite trying to decide what to do. A thousand times, I almost came for you, to insist that we were making the wrong choice—that the arrangement we struck didn’t take into account our unique circumstances.”

“What unique circumstances?” I ask, sounding skeptical.

A beat passes, and I watch the way his expression eases and the tension in his shoulders lessons as his entire demeanor softens.

“I’ve fallen for you,” he admits boldly.

His overwhelming confession barely seeps past my force field of shock.

If he didn’t orchestrate this ...

How did this happen?

“But you’re here,” I say dumbly.

It’s like I’ve lost every last one of my brain cells. They got zapped when I went through the metal detectors at security.

“I’m here ... exactly.” He laughs with unabashed wonder. “By pure coincidence. You see, I finally came to a decision about contacting you. I decided I was going to give myself a little while to cool off. I was going to continue with my travel plans, fly to London for a week of meetings and then on to Belfast—”

“Belfast?”

“To check on a ship that’s currently in production.”

I want to go to Belfast! I want to go to Belfast with him ...

He continues, “I told myself I could track you down once I got to London. I already knew I was going to make you see reason, beg you to give me a real chance.”

“But—” I look behind me, trying to find the flight attendant, before I look back at Phillip with a furrowed brow. “I don’t get what’s going on.”

“Casey,” he stresses. “Don’t you see what’s happened? It was always my plan to fly out to London today. You can ask my assistant for proof. This ticket was booked weeks ago.”

I shake my head. “I’m not accusing you of changing your flight last minute to follow me. I’m just ... if you didn’t know I was here, why did the flight attendant bring me up to you?”

This is when his smile turns a little wistful, his eyes so lovely and warm.

“When I first sat down here, I asked her to do a favor for me. I told her there was a woman I was hoping beyond hope would be on this flight and that I’d like her to check for me, just in case. I felt ridiculous asking her.”

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